ASIC Conviction

Friday 2 August 2013
A Sydney man has been disqualified from managing a corporation after being convicted and sentenced for lodging a document with ASIC that contained a false and misleading statement.

Mr Edgar Alan Agda of Beecroft NSW pleaded guilty to a contravention of section 1308(2) of the Corporations Act 2001 and was sentenced to 150 hours community service. The sentence was handed down in the Downing Centre Local Court on 16 July 2013.

Mr Agda was the sole director of IEngineer Pty Ltd, an engineering company based in Sydney. In February 2011, Mr Agda lodged a voluntary deregistration of a company Form 6010.

ASIC’s investigation found that at the time of deregistration, the company had outstanding liabilities in the amount of $25,081.50, plus costs, that was a result of a Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal decision made in December 2010 against the company for defective building works.

‘Individuals who lodge documents with ASIC have an obligation to ensure that the information they provide is accurate’, said ASIC Commissioner Greg Tanzer.

‘If a company is deregistered while it has outstanding liabilities, it unfairly prejudices another person’s legal rights. ASIC will not hesitate to take action when someone fails to act honestly when they attempt to deregister a company’, Mr Tanzer said.

The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

As detailed in ASIC’s recent enforcement report (refer: 13-191MR), this action is in addition to over 250 criminal actions against directors for failing to keep or provide accurate company records during the previous six months.